This study was carried out using progenies of 5 Parent-Stock (PS) chicken breeds introduced from 3 European companies and 1 local breed. The imported PS was Dominant Red Barred (DR), Dominant Sussex (DS), Lohmann Brown (LB), Novogen-Brown (NB) and Novogen-Color (NC). Koekoek (KK), a dual-purpose breed widely adapted in Ethiopia, was used as a local control. Commercial hybrid progenies of these five PS breeds and that of the local control were tested for their egg (females) and meat (males) production under on-farm management conditions in Debre Zeit, Ethiopia. Egg production, feed intake, body weight, and mortality of females were measured for 48 weeks for females and for 12 weeks for males. A total of 4200 females and males were evaluated, using seven replicated farmers per breed and sexes, in a completely randomized design. The analysis was done with 50% in egg production (females) and 76.2% in meat production (males) of the participant farmers due to dropped out circumstances. The main parameters considered to compare egg production performance were egg production on the income side, feed intake on the costs side and their combination, feed conversion ratio (FCR). There was significant difference (P<0.05) among the hybrids, in hen-day egg production (%) and, body weight and feed intake (females and males). The NB was the best in terms of egg production, with the lowest feed intake, higher egg mass and better FCR, followed by LB and NC, while DS was the least in egg production, body weight and other performance parameters measured during the 30 weeks period. Significantly higher body weight of males (BW-M) and average body weight gain. (ABW-G) were recorded in DR, KK and NB (ranging from 1600 to 1620g), followed by NC (1525g). Males of LB and DS had intermediate body weight (about 1400g). In summary, the males of all the commercial hybrids evaluated under the current on-farm trial were found to be the best egg producers too.
